Chicago, July 15
Even though the US is making
clear that the trade embargo on Iran would stay for some more time,
senior administration officials in Washington are making sure to let it
be known that necessary "adjustment" will be made in the sanctions to
allow the import of world-famous Persian carpets at the implementation
date.
In a background briefing administration officials
have been quoted as saying, "We are not removing our trade embargo on
Iran. US persons and banks will still be generally prohibited from all
dealings with Iranian companies, including investing in Iran,
facilitating cleared country trade with Iran. The only adjustment we
will make to those sanctions at the implementation date will be to allow
the import of food and carpets from Iran and the export of civilian
aircraft and parts to Iran, which has one of the worst airline safety
records in the world."
Carpet weaving has been at the heart of
Persia’s culture for at least 2,500 years, if not longer. According to
Iran’s National Carpet Centre, the oldest hand-woven carpet found so far
is the Pazyryk Carpet. "The carpet was discovered by Russian
archaeologists in their 1949 excavation of the tomb of a Scythian king
in Altay mountains. The carpet, roughly sized 189x189 cm, using
carbon-dating methods, is dated back as far as 500-400 BC and now is
being kept at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The
experts believe it was made during the Achaemenian or Parthian rule in
Persia, as most motifs and designs of the carpet resembles those popular
during the time of these two dynasties," it says.
Perhaps it is
as much a tribute to the cultural significance of the hand-woven Persian
rug as its importance to Iran’s economy that the sanctions against
carpet imports into the US are being lifted. America has traditionally
been an important market for Persian carpets. In a country of some 80
million people about two million people are said to make a living in the
carpet industry hand-weaving some five million square meters every
year. It is not just the number of people employed in the industry,
although it is crucial as well, it is also its deep cultural roots which
are also important.
According to figures widely quoted in
reports about the Iranian carpet industry, during Iran’s calendar year
2012-13, the country exported carpets $427 million compared to the
export worth $560 million the year before. The drop was attributed to
the global sanctions against it because of its nuclear programme. In the
first quarter of Iran’s national year in 2014 it was said to have
exported carpets worth $57 million. The US was reported to have
accounted for a meager $51,000 of that.
Perhaps it is from the
standpoint of its cultural importance that the US negotiators would also
have agreed to lift the sanctions against carpet import once the
conditions of the deal begin to get implemented as promised. At the back
of the negotiators’ mind there ought to have been the awareness of how
integral the carpet is to life in Iran. Carpet weaving was said to have
been introduced by Cyrus the Great in 529 BC and has undergone major
evolution over the past two and a half thousand years. Although
machine-made carpets have in recent years begun to replace the
hand-woven ones, internationally the latter still remain much coveted.
There
is realization that easing sanctions on the Iranian carpet import into
the US is not going to significantly improve the Iranian economy
decimated by the economic sanctions but at least the move has the merit
of convincing the Iranian people about Washington’s long-term
intentions. Of course, none of this can be taken to mean any degree of
normalization of relations between the two countries in the foreseeable
future but there are those in the Obama administration who may have
considered the deep cultural symbolism that the Persian rug has enjoyed.
